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Gabrielle Landry, Ruby's mother, died shortly after Ruby was born. As a result, Ruby was raised by her Grandmere Catherine. Ruby sometime encountered her Grandpere Jack during her childhood. Ruby showed artistic talent at a young age. Grandmere Catherine encouraged Ruby to paint nature rather than people. Ruby was raised to be hard working and to value her education. When she was young, Ruby used to play, the Daddy game, in which she would think about her father and paint him. Until she was 15, Ruby never knew about her siblings or father.

Ruby lives a content life with her Grandmother. Ruby has a sweetheart in Paul Tate, but one night after her Grandmother witnesses them kissing, she tells Ruby that Paul is actually her half-brother. Ruby is hurt, but she breaks up with Paul, and tells him the truth that they have the same mother. When Ruby's Grandmother falls ill, she tells Ruby the truth about her paternity. Ruby's real father is a wealthy Creole man from New Orleans named Pierre Dumas, and that she also has an identical twin sister. After her Grandmother's funeral, Ruby packs her belongings, wears her best dress and travels into New Orleans, and eventually finds her father's house. Outside of the house a young man drives up, calling her "Gisselle." The boy reveals that he is Beau Andreas, and believes Ruby to be Gisselle wearing a costume. Ruby nearly loses her courage, but she goes and introduces herself to her father and stepmother. Ruby's father, Pierre is very kind and gentle, and welcomes Ruby instantly into the family. Ruby's stepmother, Daphne is distant, and worries about their reputation. Gisselle is stunned to see Ruby, and reacts angrily and storms off to her room. Pierre decides to tell everyone that Ruby was abducted shortly after her birth by a nanny, and they never told anyone to give Gisselle a chance to be truly accepted. Gisselle is told this and initially believes it. Gisselle and Daphne make trouble for Ruby, while Pierre is thrilled to have a new daughter in his life, but Pierre is haunted by a former tragedy in his past. Gisselle pulls several pranks on Ruby, and Ruby retaliates by casting a spell on her. Gisselle is in a car accident, which leaves her paralyzed. Ruby accidentally tells Gisselle, and Gisselle makes her be her servant. Ruby begins a relationship with Beau Andreas, who had been very kind to her ever since meeting her.

Ruby and Gisselle are sent to an exclusive Creole school in Baton Rouge. The school places heavy emphasis on the purity of Creole blood. Gisselle is still paralyzed. Ruby and Beau are still seeing each other. Ruby becomes friends with a girl named Abby, while Gisselle makes several new friends. Gisselle still makes trouble for Ruby, and is revealed to have regained her ability to walk later on, making Ruby take all the punishments for things she had done. Ruby and Gisselle are forced to return home, after learning some shocking news, Pierre has died. After the funeral, Ruby and Gisselle return to school, and later they return home for Christmas, where Daphne announces that she has a new boyfriend. Gisselle reveals that she can walk, and Daphne considers keeping both girls home for the rest of the year. On New Year's Eve, Ruby spends the evening with Beau and Gisselle has a party, trashing the house. Daphne, furious, sends both girls back to school. Ruby discovers that she is pregnant, and the school informs Daphne. Daphne reveals her rage and envy that the Landry women are so fertile, but she could never have a child of her own. Daphne sends Ruby to an underground abortion clinic, but Ruby decides that she cannot go through with an abortion, and runs away from New Orleans, back to the Bayou. She returns to the shack were she grew up in, reconnects with Paul Tate, and eventually gives birth to a baby girl that she names Pearl.

Gisselle: "Daphne would bust a gut if she could see how well you have done for yourself, sister dear."

After the birth of Pearl, Ruby married her half-brother and childhood sweetheart Paul Tate whom most of Houma assumed was Pearl's father due to an almost rape by Buster Trehaw. They moved into Cypress Woods, an estate on land that Paul had inherited from his grandfather and had built for her. Their marriage is for show only as they are half brother and sister. At first Ruby is happy because Paul takes care of her and Pearl, but then Gisselle tells Ruby that Beau Andreas, the father of Ruby's daughter, had broken off the engagement to the french heiress. She also arrived with news that Ruby's only remaining family aside from her siblings, Uncle Jean, had died.

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Gisselle: "All I know is I'd rather be dead then live forever in that stuffy institution."

Ruby: "How can you say that! No one is better off dead, not even Uncle Jean."

Later Gisselle marries Beau to spite Ruby, and Beau and Ruby begin an affair due to their loveless marriages. Beau is at ease with the arrangement because he is certain Gisselle takes other lovers, but Ruby feels terribly guilty due to Paul's care for her.

Shortly after, Gisselle contracts encephalitis from a mosquito bite, and becomes ill without any chance of recovery. Beau and Ruby take advantage of this situation to switch the twins, Ruby pretending to be Gisselle and vice versa. Paul is not happy with the arrangement, but goes along with it to make Ruby happy. Ruby has a hard time acting like Gisselle and Paul begins to convince himself that Gisselle really is Ruby who died. Grief stricken, he goes off to the swamps drunk and drowns himself.

After Paul's death, a vengeful Gladys Tate tries to get custody of Pearl since she knows that it was Gisselle who really died. Although Ruby comes forward with her identity, Gladys reveals Beau and Ruby's affair. She almost wins the case when Ruby convinces Octavius Tate to tell the truth that Paul's mother was Gabrielle Landry, not Gladys. Gladys is horrified and Beau and Ruby get to keep Pearl.

The book ends with Ruby having twins, Pierre and Jean, named after her father and uncle.

Ruby is a very sweet, gentle and kind-hearted--all traits she inhereted from her grandmere, Catherine. She also seems to have an uncanny sense of the supernatural which Catherine also possessed. Ruby despises cruelty, deceit and lies and will always go out of her way to combat them wherever and whenever she can.

Ruby is extremely artistic as many of her paintings end up selling well when she is older. She is also knows how to make gumbo like her grandmother taught her. Since her grandmother was a traiteur, she believes in voodoo and is superstitious, this is especially seen when she casts a voodoo spell on Gisselle.

Beau met Ruby after she moved to New Orleans. At first, he thought Ruby was her twin, Gisselle. In the second book, their relationship becomes more serious until Ruby becomes pregnant. Beau is sent to France while Ruby is sent to an abortion clinic, but she runs back to Houma without getting an abortion. Later, he breaks up with his french fiancee and marries Gisselle, hoping to pretend that she is Ruby. As he still loves Ruby, they later start a secret affair. When Gisselle gets sick, he convinces Ruby and Paul to switch the twins so that he can be with Ruby and Pearl. In All that Glitters, they marry and have two more children, Pierre and Jean.

Paul and Ruby were once high school sweethearts. They truly loved each other and even talked about marriage. Octavious and Gladys Tate opposed their relationship and it wasn't until Grandmere Catherine told Ruby that Paul was her half brother that Ruby broke up with him. Though Ruby told Paul the truth, Paul was unable to get over his love for Ruby. Ruby, meanwhile, started to love Paul like a brother. However, Paul's obsession with Ruby continued, even going so far as to raping Ruby once. Ruby is also selfish when she pretends to be Gisselle. This causes Paul to believe Ruby died and go off drinking and dies. Ruby pays for this, however, when Gladys Tate nearly takes custody of Pearl.
Gisselle Dumas, is the spoiled twin sister to Ruby.